Obama's U.N. Pick Pledges To Work For Reform (NPR)

[struggle4progress]

by Michele Kelemen and Corey Flintoff

All Things Considered, January 15, 2009 · A top foreign-policy adviser to President-elect Barack Obama promised a Senate panel on Thursday that she will work for international support and consensus on key challenges if she is confirmed as the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Susan Rice told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she will work to strengthen what the incoming Obama administration views as "an indispensable if imperfect institution."

Rice, 44, is expected to win easy confirmation to the job, which the president-elect will elevate to a Cabinet-level position in a sign of a renewed commitment to multilateralism. She would be the third woman — and the first black woman — to serve as ambassador to the U.N., following Jean Kirkpatrick and Madeleine Albright.

Up until now, Rice has mainly worked on Africa, in the Clinton administration and at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. She told senators that one of her priorities will be to do more to stop what she called an "ongoing genocide" in Darfur, Sudan. She made it clear that her past experience with Rwanda has taught her some powerful lessons — that preventing genocide requires consensus and concerted action from the international community ...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99427003&ft=1&f=1004

[democrattotheend]

1. She sounds great

Very excited about her.